For over a year, the Mirror, a London tabloid has fought a courageous battle against the slavish, puppy-dog epigonism of Tony Blair for the rabid Doberman from Texas.

The paper has actively supported the rebel elements among Labour backbenchers, advanced the cause of Gordon Brown, and attempted to bring Blair's adventurism in Iraq into the disrepute it deserves.

The paper and its feisty editor, Piers Morgan have been a thorn in the side of the Blair government by giving prominent space to Claire Short and Robyn Cook and by continually reminding its readers of Blairs eel-slick mendacity; the lies of WMD, "the forty-five minutes" and other prevarications.

Blair had begun to react with uncontrollable anger and paranoia as the Mirror's attacks on him progressed.

Among the issues that concerned him were classified reports by British military intelligence in Iraq that reached Downing Street at the beginning of this year, to the effect that Amnesty International, the International Red Cross, and members of a Danish military medical contingent were preparing detailed reports about consistent patterns of abuses of Iraqi prisoners and civilians by American and British soldiers.